University College London researchers tested pupils between the ages of 12 and 16 in 2004, with scores ranging from 77 to 135. Four years later, scores were between 87 and 143, but with some major changes in individuals.

Not only was there a significant change in written tests but brain scans confirmed those who had improved their score had more grey matter.

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The tests suggest children who perform poorly at school in their early teens may still be high-achievers.

Researchers measured each person’s
verbal IQ using standard tests in maths, English, memory and general
knowledge, and also their non-verbal IQ, measured by identifying missing
elements of a picture and solving visual puzzles.

Clever stuff: As scores improved, the amount of grey matter increased, found researchers

In brain scans, increases in verbal
IQ were accompanied by an increase in grey matter in the part of the
brain which is activated when you articulate speech, called the left
motor cortex.

A rise in non-verbal IQ saw more grey matter develop in the anterior cerebellum – associated with hand movements.

Sue Ramsden, who lead the study, said: ‘We found a clear correlation between this change in performance and changes in the structure of their brain and can say with some certainty that these changes in IQ are real.’

Meanwhile, Professor Cathy Price told the journal Nature: ‘We have a tendency to assess children and determine their course of education relatively early in life, but here we have shown that their intelligence is likely to be still developing.’

A recent study, also by UCL neuroscientists, found a part of the brain called the hippocampus which plays an important in memory and navigation is far denser in the brains of London taxi drivers than other people.

Prof Price recently showed people in Columbia who grew up in remote areas and had learned to read as adults had a higher density of grey matter in several areas of the brain than those who had not learned to read.